"Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind. Original-Zauberspiel in 2 Akten. Von Ferdinand Raimund". Contemporary manuscript with autograph corrections, deletions and insertions.
4to. 166 numbered pp., 1 leaf. Contemporary card wrappers with handwritten cover title "Der Alpenkönig".
€ 25,000.00
Complete manuscript of Raimund's possibly most famous work, with corrections, deletions and insertions in his own hand. Raimund probably commissioned this copy for a performance in Innsbruck and thoroughly revised the manuscript. Some 30 pages contain Raimund's autograph revisions, comprising single words as well as whole sentences (several later deletions and annotations in pencil or ink pen are by the Austrian actor and director Henry Jenke, 1823-1906, cf. ABL III, 105 & Kosch, Theater Lexicon II, 905). The title-page bears a handwritten note of censorship: "Permitted to be performed. Innsbruck, 30 Sept. [18]31. Kugler, Chief Commissioner". The premiere was held on 17 October 1828 at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt. The play was first published in 1837 as part of the author's "collected works"; the first separate edition appeared in 1868.
Today, Ferdinand Raimund's autographs are of the utmost rarity in the trade.